The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for information transmission with digital signal processing including encoding and decoding signals representing aural or visual communication with an object library.
Data compression systems reduce the number of bits needed to transmit and store a digital information signal. As a result, a lower bandwidth communication channel can be employed to transmit a compressed video signal in comparison to an uncompressed video signal. Similarly, a similar, reduced capacity storage device, which can comprise a memory or a magnetic storage medium, can be used for storing the compressed video signal. A general information signal compression system includes an encoder, which converts the video signal into a compressed signal, and a decoder, which reconstructs the video signal based upon the compressed signal.
In the design of a video compression system, an objective is to reduce the number of bits needed to represent the video signal while preserving its information content. Prior methods and systems are based upon directly compressing a waveform representation of the video signal. An alternative compression format utilizes a limited collection of predetermined library objects that symbolically represent waveform portions in a reduced amount of bits. However, the previously known compression formats are accessible only in response to receipt of an appropriate signal.
The need exists for a compression system which significantly reduces the number of bits needed to transmit and store an information signal, regardless of its content, while preserving the content integrity of the signal. In general, the transmission system of the present invention includes an encoder and decoder that contain corresponding stored digital libraries of speech, music, video, or graphic waveforms. The transmitter only has to send a symbolic representation of the desired object to the transmitter. As a result, the present invention significantly reduces the bit rate needed to transmit, or the bit capacity of a storage device to store, a signal, and significantly reduces the bandwidth of the transmission signal needed to communicate the content.
The present invention also provides symbolic encoding and decoding of speech or music signals representing aural messages or video and graphic signals representing visual content. The present invention also provides a system for encoding an information signal that contains aural or visual signal content components or information quantities, into a bit stream, and reproducing a substantial portion by symbolic codes transmission. An object encoder assigns a symbolic code to an object contained in its library. The symbolic code identifies a corresponding object from a set of generic objects, and information other than that matching objects can be coded by conventional means. A multiplexer provides the bit stream based upon the conventional coded bit stream and the symbolic codes.
The present invention provides a system for encoding a video signal into a bit stream, wherein the transmitted signal is representative of at least one of an object of speech, audio, video and graphic objects. An image segmenter segments each frame of the input into a plurality of objects. A feature extractor, coupled to the image segmenter, forms at least one information feature quantity for each of the objects. A classifier, coupled to the feature extractor and to a first storage device containing a set of generic objects in a library, recognizes at least one of the objects as matching a corresponding library object having the at least one feature quantity. A symbolic code for this object of that segment, and coded remaining information, are multiplexed and transmitted to a receiver.
When the segment includes video image components, a motion estimator can provide a motion compensation signal based upon the motion of at least one of the objects from a first frame to a second frame. A multiplexer then provides the bit stream based upon the symbolic code, the remaining signal, and the motion compensation signal. Nevertheless, the present invention provides methods of encoding and decoding speech, audio, graphic or video signal components into a bit stream.
The present invention also provides a method and a system for reconstructing an object and other information in the segment from a bit stream representative of segment signals. In a receiver, a demultiplexer extracts Variable Length Codes (VLC) representing the symbolic code and the conventionally coded signal from the encoded video signal. The symbolic code identifies a corresponding object from set of a library objects. An object generator contributes to the output signal by generating the corresponding object waveform identified by the symbolic code.